Opponent Sports Quotes

All other trades are contained in that of war. Is that why war endures? No. It endures because young men love it and old men love it in them. Those that fought, those that did not. That's your notion. The judge smiled. Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all.

True sportsmanship is… Knowing that you need your opponent because without him or her, there is no game. Acknowledging that your opponent holds the same deep-rooted aspirations and expectations as you. Knowing that, win or lose, you will walk off the course with pride. Always taking the high road. And always, always, always being a good sport.

Sometimes life is your opponent and just showing up is a victory.

We as an English-speaking people can't not eat our dead— our language loves a cannibal. We don't just win at sports, we kill the other team; we demolish them; we devour our opponents. To express a baby's cuteness, we say we could eat her up.

Train hard while others don't, so you can win while your opponents wont.

After you have seasoned your gloves with the blood, sweat and tears of your opponents, all else is anticlimactic.

The pleasure of sport was so often the chance to indulge the cessation of time itself--the pitcher dawdling on the mound, the skier poised at the top of a mountain trail, the basketball player with the rough skin of the ball against his palm preparing for a foul shot, the tennis player at set point over his opponent--all of them savoring a moment before committing themselves to action.

Rhythm is everything in boxing. Every move you make starts with your heart, and that’s in rhythm or you’re in trouble. Your rhythm should set the pace of the fight. If it does, then you penetrate your opponent’s rhythm. You make him fight your fight, and that’s what boxing is all about.

In Mongolian culture, Khutulun is remembered by the sport in which she so excelled. These days when Mongolian men wrestle, they wear a sort of long-sleeved vest that is open in the front to prove tp their opponents they don't have breasts. It's a tribute to the woman wrestler who was never defeated.

There’s no grace to battle, no need for style. You only need to move faster and hit harder than your opponents. Dueling is more like a dance—you respect your partner, you understand them. It’s as much a chess match as a physical sport.

Once one recognizes the value of having difficult obstacles to overcome, it is a simple matter to see the true benefit that can be gained from competitive sports. In tennis who is it that provides a person with the obstacles he needs in order to experience his highest limits? His opponent, of course! Then is your opponent a friend or an enemy? He is a friend to the extent that he does his best to make things difficult for you. Only by playing the role of your enemy does he become your true friend. Only by competing with you does he in fact cooperate! No one wants to stand around on the court waiting for the big wave. In this use of competition it is the duty of your opponent to create the greatest possible difficulties for you, just as it is yours to try to create obstacles for him. Only by doing this do you give each other the opportunity to find out to what heights each can rise.

Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all.

I get naming your sports team gators, but ducks? Ducks are toothless, and they fight like pillows—all feathers and no punch—so what’s the point of them as your mascot, trying to make your opponent go to sleep on you?

The love and war in the previous injunctions are of the nature of sport, where one respects, and learns from the opponent, but never interferes with him, outside the actual game. To seek to dominate or influence another is to seek to deform or destroy him; and he is a necessary part of one's own Universe, that is, of one's self.

Memory can be dramatically disrupted if you force something that’s implicit into explicit channels. Here’s an example that will finally make reading this book worth your while—how to make neurobiology work to your competitive advantage at sports. You’re playing tennis against someone who is beating the pants off of you. Wait until your adversary has pulled off some amazing backhand, then offer a warm smile and say, “You are a fabulous tennis player. I mean it; you’re terrific. Look at that shot you just made. How did you do that? When you do a backhand like that, do you hold your thumb this way or that, and what about your other fingers? And how about your butt, do you scrunch up the left side of it and put your weight on your right toes, or the other way around?” Do it right, and the next time that shot is called for, your opponent/victim will make the mistake of thinking about it explicitly, and the stroke won’t be anywhere near as effective. As Yogi Berra once said, “You can’t think and hit at the same time.

Sport, on the other hand, is straightforward. In badminton, if you win a rally, you get one point. In volleyball, if you win a rally, you get one point. In tennis, if you win a rally, you get 15 points for the first or second rallies you’ve won in that game, or 10 for the third, with an indeterminate amount assigned to the fourth rally other than the knowledge that the game is won, providing one player is two 10-point (or 15-point) segments clear of his opponent. It’s clear and simple.

This is how to play with personal integrity in a tournament’s early rounds, when there is no umpire. Any ball that lands on your side and is too close to call: call it fair. Here is how to be invulnerable to gamesmanship. To keep your attention’s aperture tight. Here is how to teach yourself, when an opponent maybe cheats on the line-calls, to remind yourself that what goes around comes around. That a poor sport’s punishment is always self-inflicted. Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you.

Sqauash is the only gane where you call your ‘opponent’ a ‘partner’, and both of you play on the same side!

In Bruce’s opinion, the only fun in dating was the sport of it. The more it was like a tennis match, where he had to wear down his opponent through expertise and sheer force of will, the better he liked it.

You stare down your opponent, lights twinkle, but you don’t blink. This is all you and that’s all him, and it ain’t all that much. An instant later you wake up in a hospital. Your anus hurts. Long live sports.

This is a sport where attack and defense that uses fists. Opponents punch at each other and block the punches. The goal is to knock out your opponent. Typically, those who engage in boxing are of equal weights and skill levels.

One thing I had learned in high school was that in sports you always had to move in a direction that your opponent did not expect. From Ping-Pong to prizefighting, the man with the unexpected moves was the player most likely to win.

A unique degree of physical development, equally strong blows from both hands, the ability to discover an opponent, as well as quickly perceiving the discovered places on his body and the simultaneous ability to immediately deal blows, contribute to the success of his tactics, almost always leading to a decisive victory.

Inside the opponent’s 45-yard line, facing anything less than fourth and eight, teams are better off going for it than punting. Inside the opponent’s 33-yard line, they are better off going for it on anything less than fourth and 11.* Regardless of field position, on anything less than fourth and five, teams are always better off going for it.

But, I tried not to talk about winning and losing with my team. To be honest, I rarely even talked about the opponents we were facing. I did this because I wanted to keep the focus on only what we had total control over. We focused on ourselves, doing what we had to do, getting our team better. We let other teams worry about us while we only worried about ourselves.

Those of us who love sports don't always love sportsmen and women. Our love for them is conditional on them being on our side, playing on our team, competing in our colors. We can admire an opponent but we never love them, not the way we love the ones who represent us, because when ours win, it feels like we win too. They become symbols of everything we ourselves want to be.

Tennis is the sport in which you talk to yourself. No athletes talk to themselves like tennis players. Pitchers, golfers, goalkeepers, they mutter to themselves, of course, but tennis players talk to themselves—and answer. In the heat of a match, tennis players look like lunatics in a public square, ranting and swearing and conducting Lincoln-Douglas debates with their alter egos. Why? Because tennis is so damned lonely. Only boxers can understand the loneliness of tennis players—and yet boxers have their corner men and managers. Even a boxer’s opponent provides a kind of companionship, someone he can grapple with and grunt at. In tennis you stand face-to-face with the enemy, trade blows with him, but never touch him or talk to him, or anyone else. The rules forbid a tennis player from even talking to his coach while on the court. People sometimes mention the track-and-field runner as a comparably lonely figure, but I have to laugh. At least the runner can feel and smell his opponents. They’re inches away. In tennis you’re on an island. Of all the games men and women play, tennis is the closest to solitary confinement, which inevitably leads to self-talk, and for me the self-talk starts here in the afternoon shower. This is when I begin to say things to myself, crazy things, over and over, until I believe them. For instance, that a quasi-cripple can compete at the U.S. Open. That a thirty-six-year-old man can beat an opponent just entering his prime. I’ve won 869 matches in my career, fifth on the all-time list, and many were won during the afternoon shower.

There is a scene in one of the Rocky movies where after the match Apollo Creed and Rocky are waiting for the scoring of their brawl all beat up and battered, obviously both fighters gave all they had to win, and Apollo Creed says to Rocky - "Your not getting a rematch" and Rocky says "I don't want one". I love that scene. That's when you know that you left no doubt - that your opponent, win or lose, never wants to compete against you ever again. That's fighting.

Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherit in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals that define them. But trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all.

The judge smiled. Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all. Suppose two men at cards with nothing to wager save their lives. Who has not heard such a tale? A turn of the card. The whole universe for such a player has labored clanking to this moment which will tell if he is to die at that man’s hand or that man at his. What more certain validation of a man’s worth could there be? This enhancement of the game to its ultimate state admits no argument concerning the notion of fate. The selection of one man over another is a preference absolute and irrevocable and it is a dull man indeed who could reckon so profound a decision without agency or significance either one. In such games as have for their stake the annihilation of the defeated the decisions are quite clear. This man holding this particular arrangement of cards in his hand is thereby removed from existence.

I’m Danny Wexler and this is Channel Five sports! The [Undisclosed] football team has been raped in the ass by fate once again, booted from the first round of the playoffs as they failed to carry their inflatable turd past a chalk line in the grass as often as their opponents did. Here’s Hornets quarterback Mikey Wolford, flopping that right arm around like a retard while he tries to pass to a teammate that apparently only he can see. Aaaaand, it’s intercepted. Nice pass, ’tard! Now here’s Spartans fullback Derrick Simpson, pumping those nigger thighs down the field like pistons on a machine designed for cotton picking. Ooh, nice tackle attempt there, Freddy Mason! I bet you could tackle that fullback if he was made of dick, couldn’t you, Freddy? But, he’s not, so final score, forty-one to seventeen. May every Spartan die with a turd on his lips. All hail Korrok.

Yesterday while I was on the side of the mat next to some wrestlers who were warming up for their next match, I found myself standing side by side next to an extraordinary wrestler. He was warming up and he had that look of desperation on his face that wrestlers get when their match is about to start and their coach is across the gym coaching on another mat in a match that is already in progress. “Hey do you have a coach.” I asked him. “He's not here right now.” He quietly answered me ready to take on the task of wrestling his opponent alone. “Would you mind if I coached you?” His face tilted up at me with a slight smile and said. “That would be great.” Through the sounds of whistles and yelling fans I heard him ask me what my name was. “My name is John.” I replied. “Hi John, I am Nishan” he said while extending his hand for a handshake. He paused for a second and then he said to me: “John I am going to lose this match”. He said that as if he was preparing me so I wouldn’t get hurt when my coaching skills didn’t work magic with him today. I just said, “Nishan - No score of a match will ever make you a winner. You are already a winner by stepping onto that mat.” With that he just smiled and slowly ran on to the mat, ready for battle, but half knowing what the probable outcome would be. When you first see Nishan you will notice that his legs are frail - very frail. So frail that they have to be supported by custom made, form fitted braces to help support and straighten his limbs. Braces that I recognize all to well. Some would say Nishan has a handicap. I say that he has a gift. To me the word handicap is a word that describes what one “can’t do”. That doesn’t describe Nishan. Nishan is doing. The word “gift” is a word that describes something of value that you give to others. And without knowing it, Nishan is giving us all a gift. I believe Nishan’s gift is inspiration. The ability to look the odds in the eye and say “You don’t pertain to me.” The ability to keep moving forward. Perseverance. A “Whatever it takes” attitude. As he predicted, the outcome of his match wasn’t great. That is, if the only thing you judge a wrestling match by is the actual score. Nishan tried as hard as he could, but he couldn’t overcome the twenty-six pound weight difference that he was giving up to his opponent on this day in order to compete. You see, Nishan weighs only 80 pounds and the lowest weight class in this tournament was 106. Nishan knew he was spotting his opponent 26 pounds going into every match on this day. He wrestled anyway. I never did get the chance to ask him why he wrestles, but if I had to guess I would say, after watching him all day long, that Nishan wrestles for the same reasons that we all wrestle for. We wrestle to feel alive, to push ourselves to our mental, physical and emotional limits - levels we never knew we could reach. We wrestle to learn to use 100% of what we have today in hopes that our maximum today will be our minimum tomorrow. We wrestle to measure where we started from, to know where we are now, and to plan on getting where we want to be in the future. We wrestle to look the seemingly insurmountable opponent right in the eye and say, “Bring it on. - I can take whatever you can dish out.” Sometimes life is your opponent and just showing up is a victory. You don't need to score more points than your opponent in order to accomplish that. No Nishan didn’t score more points than any of his opponents on this day, that would have been nice, but I don’t believe that was the most important thing to Nishan. Without knowing for sure - the most important thing to him on this day was to walk with pride like a wrestler up to a thirty two foot circle, have all eyes from the crowd on him, to watch him compete one on one against his opponent - giving it all that he had. That is what competition is all about. Most of the times in wrestlin

People today associate rivalry with boundless aggression and find it difficult to conceive of competition that does not lead directly to thoughts of murder. Kohut writes of one of his patients: "Even as a child he had become afraid of emotionally cathected competitiveness for fear of the underlying (near delusional) fantasies of exerting absolute, sadistic power." Herbert Hendin says of the students he analyzed and interviewed at Columbia that "they could conceive of no competition that did not result in someone's annihilation." The prevalence of such fears helps to explain why Americans have become uneasy about rivalry unless it is accompanied by the disclaimer that winning and losing don't matter or that games are unimportant anyway. The identification of competition with the wish to annihilate opponents inspires Dorcas Butt's accusation that competitive sports have made us a nation of militarists, fascists, and predatory egoists; have encouraged "poor sportsmanship " in all social relations; and have extinguished cooperation and compassion.

5. Move toward resistance and pain A. Bill Bradley (b. 1943) fell in love with the sport of basketball somewhere around the age of ten. He had one advantage over his peers—he was tall for his age. But beyond that, he had no real natural gift for the game. He was slow and gawky, and could not jump very high. None of the aspects of the game came easily to him. He would have to compensate for all of his inadequacies through sheer practice. And so he proceeded to devise one of the most rigorous and efficient training routines in the history of sports. Managing to get his hands on the keys to the high school gym, he created for himself a schedule—three and a half hours of practice after school and on Sundays, eight hours every Saturday, and three hours a day during the summer. Over the years, he would keep rigidly to this schedule. In the gym, he would put ten-pound weights in his shoes to strengthen his legs and give him more spring to his jump. His greatest weaknesses, he decided, were his dribbling and his overall slowness. He would have to work on these and also transform himself into a superior passer to make up for his lack of speed. For this purpose, he devised various exercises. He wore eyeglass frames with pieces of cardboard taped to the bottom, so he could not see the basketball while he practiced dribbling. This would train him to always look around him rather than at the ball—a key skill in passing. He set up chairs on the court to act as opponents. He would dribble around them, back and forth, for hours, until he could glide past them, quickly changing direction. He spent hours at both of these exercises, well past any feelings of boredom or pain. Walking down the main street of his hometown in Missouri, he would keep his eyes focused straight ahead and try to notice the goods in the store windows, on either side, without turning his head. He worked on this endlessly, developing his peripheral vision so he could see more of the court. In his room at home, he practiced pivot moves and fakes well into the night—such skills that would also help him compensate for his lack of speed. Bradley put all of his creative energy into coming up with novel and effective ways of practicing. One time his family traveled to Europe via transatlantic ship. Finally, they thought, he would give his training regimen a break—there was really no place to practice on board. But below deck and running the length of the ship were two corridors, 900 feet long and quite narrow—just enough room for two passengers. This was the perfect location to practice dribbling at top speed while maintaining perfect ball control. To make it even harder, he decided to wear special eyeglasses that narrowed his vision. For hours every day he dribbled up one side and down the other, until the voyage was done. Working this way over the years, Bradley slowly transformed himself into one of the biggest stars in basketball—first as an All-American at Princeton University and then as a professional with the New York Knicks. Fans were in awe of his ability to make the most astounding passes, as if he had eyes on the back and sides of his head—not to mention his dribbling prowess, his incredible arsenal of fakes and pivots, and his complete gracefulness on the court. Little did they know that such apparent ease was the result of so many hours of intense practice over so many years.

Ian rested his hands behind his head. “I’m already picturing myself in the Sterling luxury suite at Soldier Field, right above the fifty-yard line.” Both the lawyer and pragmatic woman in Brooke felt the need to manage her CEO’s expectations. “You’re getting way ahead of yourself here, Ian. In fact, I think you just lapped yourself.” “A man can dream, Brooke.” She chuckled. “Who are you kidding? You barely use our suites at Wrigley Field and the United Center.” He waved this off. “Yeah, but football’s different. If we get this deal with the Bears, you better believe my butt will be at Soldier Field for every home game.” He saw her fighting back a grin. “What?” “I just wonder what it is about men and football,” Brooke said. Sure, because of her job she could hold her own when it came to talking sports, but—wow—had her eyes been opened when she’d been down in Dallas, negotiating the Cowboys deal. Those men didn’t just love football, they lived football. “Is it a warrior-metaphor kind of thing? The idea that the strongest, toughest men of the region strap on their armor and step onto the battlefield to face off against the strongest, toughest opponents?” “As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what it is.” “I see. And remind me: in what century did it become customary for one’s army to be attended at the battle ground by hot girls with spanky pants and pom-poms? Was that a tradition Napoleon started?” Brooke pretended to muse. “Or maybe it was Genghis Khan.” “You scoff at America’s sport. I have fired people for less.” Brooke threw Ian a get-real look. “No, you haven’t. You don’t fire anyone without trotting down to my office and asking me first whether you’ll get sued. And then I’m always the one that has to fire them, anyway.” “Because you do it with such charm,” Ian said with a grin

In the fall of 2006, I participated in a three-day conference at the Salk Institute entitled Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason, and Survival. This event was organized by Roger Bingham and conducted as a town-hall meeting before an audience of invited guests. Speakers included Steven Weinberg, Harold Kroto, Richard Dawkins, and many other scientists and philosophers who have been, and remain, energetic opponents of religious dogmatism and superstition. It was a room full of highly intelligent, scientifically literate people—molecular biologists, anthropologists, physicists, and engineers—and yet, to my amazement, three days were insufficient to force agreement on the simple question of whether there is any conflict at all between religion and science. Imagine a meeting of mountaineers unable to agree about whether their sport ever entails walking uphill, and you will get a sense of how bizarre our deliberations began to seem. While at Salk, I witnessed scientists giving voice to some of the most dishonest religious apologies I have ever heard. It is one thing to be told that the pope is a peerless champion of reason and that his opposition to embryonic stem-cell research is both morally principled and completely uncontaminated by religious dogmatism; it is quite another to be told this by a Stanford physician who sits on the President’s Council on Bioethics. Over the course of the conference, I had the pleasure of hearing that Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were examples of secular reason run amok, that the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad are not the cause of Islamic terrorism, that people can never be argued out of their beliefs because we live in an irrational world, that science has made no important contributions to our ethical lives (and cannot), and that it is not the job of scientists to undermine ancient mythologies and, thereby, “take away people’s hope”—all from atheist scientists who, while insisting on their own skeptical hardheadedness, were equally adamant that there was something feckless and foolhardy, even indecent, about criticizing religious belief. There were several moments during our panel discussions that brought to mind the final scene of Invasion of the Body Snatchers: people who looked like scientists, had published as scientists, and would soon be returning to their labs, nevertheless gave voice to the alien hiss of religious obscurantism at the slightest prodding. I had previously imagined that the front lines in our culture wars were to be found at the entrance to a megachurch. I now realized that we have considerable work to do in a nearer trench.

When Oliver called time a few moments later, she’d beaten them all. But she’d beaten Mr. Pinter by only one bird. “It appears, Lady Celia, that you’ve won a new rifle,” the duke said graciously. “No,” she answered. They all stared at her. “It doesn’t seem sporting to win a challenge only because one of my opponents had a faulty firearm. Which we provided to him, by the way.” “Don’t worry,” Mr. Pinter drawled. “I won’t hold the fault firearm against you and your brothers.” “That’s not the point. This should be fair, and it isn’t.” “Then we’ll move forward,” Oliver said, “and let the servants flush the grouse again. Pinter can take one more shot. That’s probably all that the misfire delayed him by. If he misses, then you’ve won squarely. If he hits his target then it’s a tie, and we’ll decide a tie breaker.” “That seems fair.” She glanced over at Mr. Pinter. “What do you say, sir?” “Whatever my lady wishes.” His eyes met hers in a heated glance. She had the unsettling feeling that he referred to more than just the shooting. “Well, then,” she said lightly. “Let’s get on with it.” The beaters headed forward to flush the grouse, but either because of where the grouse had last settled or because of the beaters’ position, the birds rose farther away than was practical. “Damn it all,” Gabe uttered. “He won’t make a shot from here.” “You can ignore this one, and we’ll have them flushed again,” Celia said. But Mr. Pinter raised his gun to follow their flight. With a flash and the repugnant smell of black powder igniting, the gun fired and white smoke filled the air. She saw a bird fall. No, not one bird. He’d hit two birds with an impossible shot. Her breath lodged in her throat. She’d hit two with one shot a few times, due to how they clustered and how well the birdshot scattered, but to do it at such a distance… She glanced at him, astonished. No one had ever beaten her-and certainly not with such an amazing shot. Mr. Pinter gazed at her steadily as he handed off the gun to a servant. “It appears that I’ve won, my lady.” Her mouth went dry. “It does indeed.” Gabe hooted pleased at having escaped buying her a rifle. The duke and the viscount scowled, while Devonmont just looked amused as usual. All of that fell away as Mr. Pinter’s gaze dropped to her mouth. “Well done, Pinter,” Oliver said, clapping him on the shoulder. “You obviously more than earned a kiss.” For a moment, raw hunger flickered in his eyes. Then it was as if a veil descended over his face, for his features turned blank. He walked up to her, bent his head… And kissed her on the forehead. Hot color flooded her cheeks. How dared he kiss her last night as if she were a woman, and then treat her like a child in front of her suitors! Or worse, a woman beneath his notice! “Thank heavens that’s done,” she said loftily, trying to retain some dignity. The men all laughed-except Mr. Pinter, who watched her with a shuttered expression. As the other gentleman crowded round to congratulate him on his fine shot, she plotted. She would make him answer for every remark, every embarrassment of this day, as soon as she had the chance to get him alone. Because no man made a fool of her and got away with it.

Bill Bradley (b. 1943) fell in love with the sport of basketball somewhere around the age of ten. He had one advantage over his peers—he was tall for his age. But beyond that, he had no real natural gift for the game. He was slow and gawky, and could not jump very high. None of the aspects of the game came easily to him. He would have to compensate for all of his inadequacies through sheer practice. And so he proceeded to devise one of the most rigorous and efficient training routines in the history of sports. Managing to get his hands on the keys to the high school gym, he created for himself a schedule—three and a half hours of practice after school and on Sundays, eight hours every Saturday, and three hours a day during the summer. Over the years, he would keep rigidly to this schedule. In the gym, he would put ten-pound weights in his shoes to strengthen his legs and give him more spring to his jump. His greatest weaknesses, he decided, were his dribbling and his overall slowness. He would have to work on these and also transform himself into a superior passer to make up for his lack of speed. For this purpose, he devised various exercises. He wore eyeglass frames with pieces of cardboard taped to the bottom, so he could not see the basketball while he practiced dribbling. This would train him to always look around him rather than at the ball—a key skill in passing. He set up chairs on the court to act as opponents. He would dribble around them, back and forth, for hours, until he could glide past them, quickly changing direction. He spent hours at both of these exercises, well past any feelings of boredom or pain. Walking down the main street of his hometown in Missouri, he would keep his eyes focused straight ahead and try to notice the goods in the store windows, on either side, without turning his head. He worked on this endlessly, developing his peripheral vision so he could see more of the court. In his room at home, he practiced pivot moves and fakes well into the night—such skills that would also help him compensate for his lack of speed. Bradley put all of his creative energy into coming up with novel and effective ways of practicing. One time his family traveled to Europe via transatlantic ship. Finally, they thought, he would give his training regimen a break—there was really no place to practice on board. But below deck and running the length of the ship were two corridors, 900 feet long and quite narrow—just enough room for two passengers. This was the perfect location to practice dribbling at top speed while maintaining perfect ball control. To make it even harder, he decided to wear special eyeglasses that narrowed his vision. For hours every day he dribbled up one side and down the other, until the voyage was done. Working this way over the years, Bradley slowly transformed himself into one of the biggest stars in basketball—first as an All-American at Princeton University and then as a professional with the New York Knicks. Fans were in awe of his ability to make the most astounding passes, as if he had eyes on the back and sides of his head—not to mention his dribbling prowess, his incredible arsenal of fakes and pivots, and his complete gracefulness on the court. Little did they know that such apparent ease was the result of so many hours of intense practice over so many years.

I fought hard for such a framing at the Conference of the Parties 6 in The Hague in 2000, but was opposed not by the usual suspects—industrial interests and OPEC—but rather by those who were more “green”—World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, and European Green Party delegates. I was dumbfounded. Why didn’t they want to support a plan to both keep carbon in the forests and get a double bonus of biodiversity protection? The debates were heated. I thought the argument against it—no baseline for additionality—was legitimate, but not an insurmountable obstacle. Baselines are negotiable, and protecting primary forests should at least have been on the agenda. The passion of the opponents seemed totally misplaced. One evening during COP 6, I went to the environment NGOs’ tent for a reception. In this more informal setting,

Most sports require you to master the movements of only your own body to be successful. The combat grappling arts, such as jujitsu, require you to become the master not only of your own movement but also that of your opponent—a far more difficult and complex task.

today's heavy emphasis on competition and humiliation of your "opponent" (whether in sports, business, or family), our culture sets men up for anger and unhappiness.

That made sense to me. More than any sport I know golf provides an all-encompassing code. The game's unwritten rules elicit socially redeeming behavior; when a match is over, you shake your opponent's hand. The game's written regulations place all players on an equal footing; everybody starts from behind the tee markers. Golf is a world unto itself. Standing at the head of a course in the early light of a late-summer day, with the fog lifting and the sheep bleating grass clippings sticking to the sides of your shoes and the air smelling of damp wool, the golf course is a sanctuary. You wonder: What's in store for me today? There's hope in your voice, of course. Without hope, there is no golf.

As with war, suppressing reactive aggression and following rules are fundamental to most sports. Indeed, sports might have evolved as a way to teach impulse control along with skills useful for hunting and controlled proactive fighting. What is more unsportsmanlike than punching an opponent who scores a goal or, even worse, punching a teammate who scores instead of you? Professional tennis players aren’t even allowed to say rude things on court. Surely other hominins including Neanderthals engaged in play, but I hypothesize that sports evolved when humans became self-domesticated. As noted above, it is primarily among domesticated species that adults play, and among the many reasons humans in every culture play sports, one is to teach cooperation and learn to restrain reactive aggression. Regardless of whether you are trying to beat your opponent to a pulp in a cage or impress the judges of a synchronized swimming competition, to be a “good sport” you have to play by the rules, control your temper, and get along with others. Sports also foster habits like discipline and courage that are crucial for proactive aggression such as warfare. Perhaps the Battle of Waterloo really was won on the playing fields of Eton.

GB-3 This vital point is located near the lower aspects of the temple area of skull, along the Zygomatic Arch, and is directly forward of the ear. It is bilateral, meaning it is found on both sides of the head, which is unlike any of the centerline points that only occur once. It is not directly associated with any of the Extraordinary Vessels, but is an Intersection Point for the Gall Bladder Meridian, Triple Warmer Meridian, and the Stomach Meridian. This makes it valuable to martial artists, since Intersection Points provide the ability to disrupt multiple meridians with a single strike. It makes attacking them economic from a time and motion standpoint. In a standard defense of being grabbed at the waist, with your arms free, slapping the ears forcefully will allow activation of this point with the meaty part of your hand. It is one of several points in this region of the skull and other would likely be activated while striking it given their proximity and size of the surface you are striking with. EYES If you asked a non-martial artist what are vital points on the human body, most of them would include the eyes. This is just basic common sense, as the eyes allow us to see our environment and determine any possible threats. If you happen to be struck in the eye it would inhibit your ability to effectively defend yourself. This is as true today as it was at the time that the author(s) were putting together what became the Bubishi. Though the eyes are not pressure point per se, these organs are extremely sensitive to attack. Flicking, poking, or thrusting into the eyes directly will greatly inhibit your opponent’s ability to see you in a combative situation. In fact, many of the old school Western hand-to-hand instructors of the World War II area were adamant in attacking the eyes. Likewise, it is common place in many martial arts systems, especially the ones that are truly combative and not sport oriented. Quick flicks of the wrist, with the fingertips striking the eyes, is a method that most opponents aren’t expecting. Thrusting your fingers into the eyes, either all or singularly, is another effective technique. More extreme is thrusting one finger into the inner corner of the opponent’s eye and then jerking forward and to the outside. This technique will dislodge the eye from its socket and should only be used in extreme circumstances. Defending against eye attacks is built into each of us, as we instinctually know their importance. If you recognize an eye attack from your opponent, dropping, raising and/or turning the head will many times save you from eye injury.

They destroyed every playoff opponent and set a record for postseason point differential that still stands.

Basically, action is, and always will be, faster than reaction. Thus, the attacker is the one that dictates the fight. They are forcing the encounter with technique after technique that are designed to overcome any defensive techniques initiated by the defender. Much of this exchange, and determining which of the adversaries is victorious, is all a matter of split seconds. That is the gap between action and reaction. That attacker acts; the defender reacts. Military history is saturated with an uneven amount of victorious attackers compared to victorious defenders. It is common to observe the same phenomenon in popular sports, fighting competitions, in the corporate world of big business. The list goes on and on. So, how do we effectively defend ourselves when we can easily arrive at the conclusion that the defender statistically loses? It is by developing the mentality that once attacked that you immediately counter-attack. That counter-attack has to be ferocious and unrelenting. If someone throws a punch, or otherwise initiates battle with you, putting you, for a split second, on the wrong side of the action versus reaction gap. Your best chance of victory is to deflect, smoother, parry, or otherwise negate their attack and then immediately launch into a vicious counter-attack. Done properly, this forces your adversary into a reactive state, rather than an action one. You turn the table on them and become the aggressor. That is how to effectively conceptualizes being in a defensive situation. Utilizing this method will place you in a greater position to be victorious. Dempsey, Sun Tzu and General Patton would agree. Humans are very violent animals. As a species, we are capable of high levels of extreme violence. In fact, approaching the subject of unarmed combatives, or any form of combatives, involves the immersion into a field that is inherently violent to the extreme of those extremes. It is one thing to find yourself facing an opponent across a field, or ring, during a sporting match. Those contests still pit skill verses skill, but lack the survival aspects of an unarmed combative encounter. The average person rarely, if ever, ponders any of this and many consider various sporting contests as the apex of human competition. It is not. Finding yourself in a life-or-death struggle against an opponent that is completely intent on ending your life is the greatest of all human competitions. Understanding that and acknowledging that takes some degree of courage in today’s society.

HT-1 This point is difficult to access, as it is well protected by the structure of the human body. HT-1is a bilateral Vital Point that is located in the armpit at the junction of the inner arm with the torso. It is associated with the Heart Meridian and is the point that the internal aspects of that meridian leaves the inner torso and emerges close to the surface of the skin. It does not have a direct connection to any Extraordinary Vessels, but is highly sensitive to attack. Traditional Chinese Medicine state that this is a no-needle point in many related textbooks. On the surface, this point would appear to be a difficult one to access during an altercation, but it is accessible. HT-1 becomes easily accessible if the opponent’s arm is raised, which occurs in the short instances that they are throwing a punch. A quick finger thrust or one-knuckle fist strike can easily activate it, but it requires a fair amount of precision to land. Combat science teaches us that precision generally diminishes during an altercation, but I add the above variant for those that would be willing to put in the training time for achieve such a strike. Just remember that the likelihood of landing such a technique during an actual altercation is remote, even with copious amounts of practice. A more realistic attack to HT-1 is when you have used your opponent’s arm to take them to the ground. Once established, as a generally rule of thumb, it is advised that if you have established control over an opponent’s arm that you should maintain that control until you deliver a blow that ends the fight. So, with that in mind, one of my favorite attacks to HT-1 after driving an opponent to ground while having established and maintained arm control, that you jerk the arm towards yourself as you throw a kick into this Vital Point. The type of kick will be dependent on the positioning of your opponent. If he is bladed on the ground (laying on one side with the arm you control in the air) a hard side kick or stomp works well. If the opponent starts turning, or squaring his shoulders towards you as he hits the ground in an attempt to regain his feet, then a forceful forward, or straight kick, can work. I would suggest working with a training partner to determine the various configurations that a downed opponent would react when you maintain control of one of their arms. Notice that I did not advise that you kick your training partner in HT-1, which is ill advised since it theoretically can cause disruptions to the heart and according to Traditional Chinese Medicine theory even death. Again, this technique is not for demonstration or sport-oriented martial arts, but mature and thoughtful training practice can provide a wealth of knowledge on how best to attack a Vital Point, even if it is not actually struck.

The physics of diffuse axonal injury Given our understanding of the rotational nature of diffuse axonal injury, it is now possible for us to take what we learned about levers and rotational motion in the previous chapters and apply that knowledge here to help us understand how a punch to the chin ends up stretching and damaging axons in the brainstem and throughout the brain. The first step in this process is the punch. This punch must meet a minimum energy requirement because we will be causing structural damage to axons in the brain. This punch must also meet a minimum momentum requirement because we need to spin the whole head around to damage those axons. Considering what we know about knockout punches and how boxers train, it is relatively safe to say that meeting the minimum energy requirement is not difficult, but meeting the minimum momentum requirement is. Fast punches are important strategically, but increasing the effective mass behind your punches is what gives your punch the ability to lay your opponent out on the mat. Figure 5-2. The process of diffuse axonal injury from punch to axon stretching. Left: The punch hits your opponent. Center: The punch rotates your opponent’s head around an axis located in the neck. Right: Axons located a small distance from the axis of rotation become stretched as one end of the axon travels around the axis of rotation. This story takes us from the fist to the axon, but there is still something missing. We turn our heads left and right every day, sometimes very rapidly, so what makes a punch so special? The science is still too young to be sure, but I will speculate that the peak of the force curve (figure 5-3) is typically where the axon gets rapidly extended to its natural limit, but the tail of the force curve is where the axons are damaged. The primary reason for this speculation is the empirical knowledge that pushing off the back foot is essential for a good knockout punch. Boxers and martial artists from all styles stress the importance of this push to the success of a punch. Some strikes, such as a front-hand palm strike or a square-shouldered wing chun punch, for which a back-foot push is impossible, will still generate the same long-tail force profile in figure 5-3 by making contact before the arm is fully extended and using the muscles in the arm to apply force by continuing the extension. The same profile appears when athletes tackle each other in other contact sports. There is an initial peak force at the moment of collision, but the legs continue to push after the initial peak.

The neck is also a viable target. Given our understanding of diffuse axonal injury as the result of stretching forces on the axons in the brain (particularly near the base of the skull), it is reasonable to assume you could generate the same damage by applying a force on either side of the same axon. Since it appears that knockouts occur as a result of diffuse axonal injury involving the brainstem (Smith, et al., 2000), we should be able to apply our force to the neck to get a knockout as well. Of course, if you land a left hook to the chin, you get to use the head as a lever, but there are no levers for the neck, so you will have to apply more force to your strike in order to get the same result. We can see this in action in muay Thai, MMA, and kickboxing matches, where a kick to the side of the neck can cause an opponent to lose consciousness immediately. Strikes directly to the back of the head (at the base of the skull) generate the same effect, but the minimum force required is lower, possibly because there is less muscle and other tissue between the axons and the point of impact. These strikes are illegal in most styles of fighting for sport, but they are still good to know, just in case you find yourself in a life-or-death scenario with an opportunity to strike there.

The ability to surprise an opponent is a formidable attacking weapon in this sport.

10K forced march in full kit, an obstacle course and rappelling, plus another 10K run. A cherry on the top when you are beyond smoked is a 12-minute full-contact sparring session—with fresh opponents rotating in every three minutes. Once on the team, operators aggressively compete against their colleagues in the frequently held law enforcement sports events. Their specialties: hand-to-hand combat and the kettlebell sport. A matter of specificity and pride.

Fear is simply confirmation that what you’re about to do is very important to you,” Andre told me years ago. “Recognizing your fear isn’t admitting weakness; it’s admitting reality. You can’t defeat an opponent by pretending it doesn’t exist. And fear is the

I sincerely believe that the difference was that I didn’t talk about winning and losing. I didn’t talk about beating opponents. I kept our focus on only what we could control: our effort and our attitude in the present moment.

… he intended to exploit as best he could the traditional rivalries, for that was one of the best things the league had going for it, genuine rivalries in which the players themselves participated. Those rivalries, Boston-Philly, New York–Baltimore, needed no ballyhoo; the athletes themselves were self-evidently proud and they liked nothing better than to beat their opponents,

What news do political junkies demand? Outrage and gossip. Why? Because it’s alluring. What news do we avoid? Local news. Why? It’s boring. What do we think of our partisan opponents? We hate them. Do we really hate them? No, but politics is more fun if we root for a team and spew anger at the other side. It’s easier to hate and dismiss the other side than to empathize and connect to them. When do we vote? When there’s a spectacle. When do we click? When politics can be a frivolous distraction. When do we donate? When there’ a cocktail party or a viral video. What are we doing? We’re taking actions not to empower our political values, but to satisfy our passion for the sport of politics.

to defeat any opponent or obstacle, you first have to defeat fear. Fear is the ultimate enemy. The battle between faith and

The observation sense and the correct assessment of the opponent's properties, the ability to choose the right moment for the attack, the ability to react at the right moment and in the right way to the opponent's actions, allow Bulakov to box economically, and as if without haste.

There's a code of honor in sports, Guerin believed. You do not deliberately embarrass your opponent or set records outside the normal flow of the game. The Warriors were breaking a code.

The hardest and hardiest, heartiest defense comes squarely from where it can empathize with the artiest and sharpest, smartest offense.

When attacking, the bottom punch can only be used in those cases when the opponent leans forward.

When attacking, the bottom punch can only be used in those cases when the opponent leans forward. In any other case, attack with these blows is dangerous. The blow from the bottom gains strength when the body is suddenly straightened, with a simultaneous torsion of the torso, directing the striking arm forward towards the target. With a single blow from the bottom, the free hand shields the head and trunk from opponents' counter-blows.

Under the beggar, the long-distance shots are only given to the right hand, regardless of which opponent's hand is attacking . The opponent's straight blow stops with the open palm of his right hand at his chin. At the same time, the boxer is given the opportunity to give the opponent a free left hand, in combination with the torso of the torso to the right, a counter-blow to the head. Counter-kill (as well as any other blow) should be asked very quickly to warn the opponent.

When attacking the opponent with a straight-line blow to the head, combining a counter-fight with defense by putting a hand on it is irrational. Putting your hand under the blow of the right hand is better combined with deflecting the shoulder and with the whole body moving backwards, transferring the weight of the body to the right leg. This will give you the opportunity to weaken your opponent's power and deprive him of his balance.

The choice of a counter-strike depends on which of the most vulnerable places on the opponent's body turns out to be exposed.

In half-distance opponents need to focus their attention more carefully in order to defend and choose the moment for the blow task at the right time, while in the distance fight opponents feel more at ease and are able to maneuver while constantly moving. Half-distance is the most convenient for starting a fight; gives you the opportunity to deal blows with both hands without interruption. Many boxers consider this distance as basic and proper for themselves. To be able to constantly fight in this distance, you have to be a really big master.

In most cases, the blow is taken by hand unlike the opponent's hand. In some cases, it is also possible to break the cross, for example, clasping the left hand with your left hand to the right, obligatorily connected with a quick counter-clockwise right angle to the opponent's head. The bending should be done by hand unlike the enemy who deals the opponent's blow, because the defending boxer thus preserves his free hand for defense or counter-task, secures himself against the possible opponent's second blow, and by the same token kills the opponent, depriving him of the possibility to task the other a blow, and even knocking him off balance. By applying breaks to the inside, body weight can be transferred to both the left and right leg, depending on the distance to the opponent, which should be sufficient when defending, so that the counter-blows can be effective. The twist of the body, accompanying the tossing in, precludes the possibility of applying "direct" counterpoints, but sets the boxer in a convenient starting position to ask for counter-measures "from defense".

Backward reversal is used to increase the distance from the opponent. Such defense can be used against every blow. Just take a quick step back to avoid the opponent's blow. Defense by descent to the side involves a wide movement, leading the boxer from the field of punching the opponent's blows. This defense is used not so much to protect against any single blow as to avoid the opponent's next attack. This type of defense is especially valuable in the fight against the boxer, striving for a half-distance fight and trying to push the opponent to the ropes or drive him to the corner of the ring.

In half-distance, a boxer can use long and short blows without having to step forward. Long and short blows are dealt with, the boxer adjusts the distance from the opponent by bending more or less hands, moving the torso, moving resistance from foot to foot, as well as performing deviations and using small steps to follow or move away from the opponent

Horseball This English-style team sport is like polo, football, and basketball all in one. It is a fast, mounted competition where a ball is carried by hand and shot through a high net to score points. During the competition, riders use the weight of their horses to shove their opponents out of the playing area without unseating themselves.

Fighting in the ring requires a lot of attention from the boxer. The attention of the boxer should be marked by vigilance, continuity and perseverance. The boxer must at the right time see how the opponent's preparatory moves change, he must be able to guess the character of the intended attack or defense from them.

It is very important to teach the boxer how to maintain the direction of the boxing position in relation to the constantly changing opponent's place. This is achieved by returns. Returns are made on the front of the foot, bearing the weight of the body. Returns can be made on any leg. If, for example, you want to lean on the right leg around which the turn is made, the left leg is set aside towards the opponent. In this way, the combat direction of the position relative to the opponent is obtained (Figure 3). A quick turn of the torso around the leg, on which the weight of the body rests, facilitates the movement of the other leg, moved forward or backward.

boxer with a stronger right hand stands with the left side of the torso forward (in half-turn to the opponent), thus providing his right hand with a more favorable starting position for dealing strong blows. The left leg, advanced forward, rests on the floor with the entire foot. The right foot is just a small step behind and on the right step sweat, parallel to the left, touching the floor with your front part. In relation to the opponent, the feet are returned half a turn to the right. The weight of the body is evenly distributed on both legs, with slightly bent legs, which gives the possibility of free stepping with any foot in any direction. Torso straightened to facilitate balancing while moving around the ring.

With sniper blows you can attack and from a distance, but starting to attack the boxer must take a quick enough step to get close to the opponent. In order to be able to effectively use the sickle blows for an attack or counterattack, you must learn to ask them by moving around the whole ring.

In the fight for half-distance, the boxer works faster than in a distance fight; great speed of short blows and fast change - situations greatly hinder the boxer's orientation: in a half-distance fight he should specifically guess the intended actions of the opponent, immediately anticipating them, finding convenient starting positions, both for short blows and for defense. Therefore, the boxer should learn and learn exactly the defense and counteracting, used in the fight for half-life. All counters are divided into "direct" defense. The "blows" are called those blows that anticipate the opponent's attack (Figure 26). These blows anticipate the opponent's attack and due to the fact that they are unexpected for the opponent, they are considered the most effective. "Direct" blows can be combined with almost all types of defense. The ability to use them gives the boxer the option of permanently keeping the initiative in combat in his hands. In actions against the attacking boxer, the basic ones are "direct" counterits; you can stop them and paralyze aggressive actions of the opponent

numerous, accurate, repeated, still straight blows. A long straight blow to the head is relatively safe for the one dealing with him, because the boxer's body stays at a sufficient distance from the opponent and is not directly exposed to his short counter-attacks. Twisting the right torso protects the boxer, to some extent, from the opponents' right-hand counter-strikes. The blow is dealt directly from the boxing position from a distance. The weight of the body before the blow evenly spreads to both legs, or slightly moves to the right leg. With the right leg, the boxer sends the body forward towards the opponent. The left leg performs a sliding step forward. In this way, the body moves forward, the reflection with the right leg gives the movement even more dynamism.

fill pauses in the fight, thus keeping the initiative in your hands. An experienced boxer can disorganize the tactics of the most reasonable opponent, teasing him with numerous, accurate, repeated, still straight blows. A long straight blow to the head is relatively safe for the one dealing with him, because the boxer's body stays at a sufficient distance from the opponent and is not directly exposed to his short counter-attacks. Twisting the right torso protects the boxer, to some extent, from the opponents' right-hand counter-strikes. The blow is dealt directly from the boxing position from a distance. The weight of the body before the blow evenly spreads to both legs, or slightly moves to the right leg. With the right leg, the boxer sends the body forward towards the opponent. The left leg performs a sliding step forward. In this way, the body moves forward, the reflection with the right leg gives the movement even more dynamism. The left hand, directed before the blow to the enemy, quickly moves forward, fist into the target. The speed increases further thanks to the torsion of the trunk from the left to the right, harmonized with the simultaneous general movement forward. At the last moment of dealing a blow, his sharpness increases by the ending, rapid movement of the hand dealing the blow. The fist, when it touches the target, should be turned in half-turn revolving downwards, with the forearm in the intermediate system between pronation and supination.

The right hand is dealt with blows only in cases when the gap in defense of the enemy was created. A blow with your right hand from the side position takes longer than a blow with your left hand. Therefore, it is difficult to often strike with your right hand. In addition, in the event of a miss, the solder and the boxer's head are exposed. All this means that in order to be able to deal blows more often with the right hand, they should be prepared, reducing the tightness of the opponent's defense with the marked actions, and also, one should still remember about the belaying against the opponent's blows.

In the fight against an opponent operating quickly and using the most unexpected counterattacks in a variety of ways, there is only one type of belaying - cover the chin without interruption. The most commonly used insurance method is the following: the palm of the right hand, ready to accept a possible opponent's blow, should be kept by the chin. When learning blows, defending the chin with the hand of a free hand is considered a valid condition. In the initial period of training it is necessary to observe that young boxers attacking are protected from unexpected opponents' countermeasures.

Victory in combat is achieved primarily thanks to the activity and fast pace of battle; and yet misses interfere with the continuity of the boxer's actions. The most important condition for a properly planned fight in terms of tactics - is the ability to act unexpectedly. The fight, in which the lack of combat cunning, can not bring success, because the opponent, knowing the combat capabilities and means of the boxer, easily opposes their actions.

The boxer should take care to hide the moment of attack and its very nature, by inverting in any way the attention of the opponent from the chosen target and the intended decisive hit. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately mask the starting position to the task of making misleading movements. In addition, every boxer should be able to hide his physical and moral state from an opponent. The skills of concealing one's weakness, fatigue or effects of the blow often save the boxer from failure.

It is important, however, to protect yourself against loss of balance in the case of misses, which use a lot of energy and put the boxer in a difficult positional situation against the opponent. Therefore, the boxer, even quickly and energetically carrying out his attacks, should skillfully calculate the strength of his blows to always keep his balance.

When developing an action plan, it is important to remember to ensure you win points. If this is forgotten and the attempts to find a decisive victory come to naught, the ratio of points may be beneficial to the opponent.

BLOW FROM THE BOTTOM LEFT INTO THE TORSO Unlike other blows from the bottom, this blow can be fully used in an attack, because it easily reaches the target. The right hand of the opponent, usually covering the torso, is not difficult to bring from the defensive position a marked left blow to the head. At that moment, the left hand, changing direction, quickly strikes the bottom The blow from the bottom left in the torso differs from the same blow in the head only by the direction of the striking hand (the inclined line to the target). All other body movements are the same as with the previous stroke. The blow from the bottom left in the torso, in the close-up fight, is dealt with at the moment when the opponent's torso tilts forward. The speed of the blow increases as you approach the target. The blow ends with a sharp jerk, resulting from the work of the abdominal, back, leg and hand muscles that strikes. When striking a blow, the whole body of the attacker should be free from unnecessary stress.

In combination with defense, the movement of each major blow changes, under the influence of the character of the defense. As a counter-battle in the fight on the half distance, only short straight, bottom and sickle blows are used. In the fight for half-distance, the boxer works faster than in a distance fight; great speed of short blows and fast change - situations greatly hinder the boxer's orientation: in a half-distance fight he should specifically guess the intended actions of the opponent, immediately anticipating them, finding convenient starting positions, both for short blows and for defense. Therefore, the boxer should learn and learn exactly the defense and counteracting, used in the fight for half-life. All counters are divided into "direct" and "defense".

In actions against the attacking boxer, the basic ones are "direct" counterits; you can stop them and paralyze aggressive actions of the opponent. One of the best blows is a straight left blow to the head; it is effective in any combat situations; the boxer using it is relatively safe (from the opponent's blows).

Counters when defending from a straight blow to the head. Putting the right hand on the opponent's open hand. This defense is combined with a counter-blow "direct" straight left in the opponent's head. When blocking, the right hand stops the blow and slightly pushes the opponent's hand striking to the left. If you bounce your right leg from the floor, push your body forward and ask for a counter-part. A quick but small turning of the torso to the right should strengthen the movement of the left hand, which deals a direct counterintell in the exposed target. Counter "direct" should be asked very quickly to warn the opponent's attacking blow. Putting the left shoulder on the opponent's punch. With this defense, the chin, adjacent to the left collarbone, is covered by the forward bar.

The torso bends just enough for the opponent to miss. Strengthen the chin cover by covering it with the left shoulder, in combination with a slight torso of the torso to the right. The deviation to the right, from a technical point of view, is conveniently combined with a direct or straight "counter" counter, left, directed into the head or in the opponent's torso. The right hand can be used to deflect right and for the purpose of applying simple and sick counter-measures to the head and torso. The left deviation is carried out with the simultaneous transfer of the body weight to the left leg. From this position you can ask a counter-blow "from defense" or a blow from the left bottom to the head or torso. without a complementary defense of the right hand, the chin is very risky, because the opponent can give the boxer a second blow with his right hand.

In order for the blow to reach the target effectively, a few left-handed blows are performed with the left hand, reducing the tightness of the opponent's defense and helping to choose the right moment to attack. When striking a step forward, the movement begins to obtain the necessary distance by the reflection of the right leg, sending the body forward, combined with the simultaneous twist of the trunk from the right to the left. The left leg is performed with a sliding pace towards the opponent, putting it at a distance from which you can deal that blow without a step. The right hand from the starting position (with the hand at the chin and the right side of the elbow lowered) violently protrudes fist forward, along a straight line to the target (without prior assault), not being behind the movement of the torso. The right leg, after bouncing, pulls up to the required distance to the left to maintain balance, or is left behind. When the weight of the body was transferred to the left leg, the muscles of the right leg relax, and the leg itself pulls up to the left somehow spontaneously, to the necessary distance and rotates on the fingers from right to left. This is indispensable, so that the right side of the torso, restrained by the strained muscles, goes forward, providing the blow with the greatest possible distance. Counter-attacks protect the left hand by covering the head with the hand; abandoned elbow - torso.

The tilt of the torso with the right-hand turn to the left and the forward fist move simultaneously. At the moment of the blow, the left leg is half-bent in the knee joint and rests on the front floor; part of the foot. It is indispensable not to lose balance in the case of a miss when the opponent leaves the back. In contrast to the straight left punch in the torso, usually used as a punctured punch, the right straight line is the strongest. After the right blow in the torso (as in the case of a blow to the head), it is possible to develop the attack with a left blow, with a reflection of the left leg. The counter-light curtain should be especially careful, because the left torso of the torso reveals parts of the body, nothing is secured from the opponent's right-hand strike. The left hand should cover the left side of the head with the palm of the hand and the torso with the lowered elbow. To protect himself from a counterattack, the boxer who missed should first of all take a defensive position, facing the opponent.

It is more certain to use a deviation to the left in conjunction with the "direct" counterpart, with the right hand in the head, or in the torso. In this case, cover the chin with the outside, the side of the left hand chin, and the elbow - the torso. As a "direct" counterpart on the left, it can be used to cross the right-handed blow in the head. The name of this blow comes from the fact that the hands of the boxers are crossed when they inflict it. This blow can be inflicted if the opponent often attacks with a straight left blow to the head. Noticing the beginning of the opponent's blow, the boxer quickly leans forward to the left, passes his opponent's left hand over his right shoulder and deals a straight blow to the head, over the opponent's outstretched hand, while stepping forward with his left foot. The success of this blow depends on whether the boxer measures the exact distance to the opponent.

THE RIGHT BLOW IN THE HEAD The blow, as with all other blows, with the right hand, almost never starts an attack. It follows a blow (mark or normal), deal with the first hand, a task that is to break down the opponent's guard and create the ability to deal a blow with his right hand. The left-hand position of the opponent's body, which is in the boxing position, naturally creates a veil for the chin from the side blows. In order to cause the opponent to unveil, punched blows are used in the torso, forcing the opponent to defend the trunk, and thus weaken the head defense. As a punctured punch, you can apply simple or left-left eros in the torso.

3) Departure by making the right leg to the right with the return on it to the left to face the opponent. He shakes his right hand lightly while asking;) blow his hand. opponent to the left, and the left takes the starting position to the counter-mission of "defense". The space on the opponent's body revealed at the moment determines the choice of a counter-blow (a blow or a blow from the bottom). With the right hand you can ask a "direct" counter-part from the bottom in the torso under the opponent's hand giving blow, or a simple blow to the head.

Going left is done by taking a sliding pace or getting away. In both cases, the departure must necessarily be combined with the task of "direct" counter-parting right in the head, in order to anticipate the possible blow of the opponent's right hand. When leaving to the left, it is also possible to task the opponent with a "direct" counter-part right down the head or in the torso. Going back. The movement of this defense starts with the left leg kicking off the floor and step back with your right foot. Performing a backward move, the boxer should, by assessing the body position of the attacking opponent, determine the exposed target and choose the type of counter-part. Just the right leg will touch the floor, the boxer, without spreading the weight of the body on both legs and without losing the right moment, should step forward quickly to target the counter-target of "defense".

Tactical combat actions should be thought out and organized. To build a battle plan is easy only in this case, if the opponent is known in advance, if the boxer knows his way of fighting, his favorite technical means and his personal qualities. But if the boxer does not know the opponent completely, then in the fight with him always have to pose the task of conducting a thorough, preliminary diagnosis. Every fight with any opponent always requires reasonable precautions. In practice, there were quite a few cases that the boxer lost the fight only because he started decisive actions, without first noticing the characteristics and character of the opponent's actions. When planning a fight, the relationship of strength must always be judged soberly; you can neither underestimate nor overestimate your opponent's strength. To fight against a known enemy, prepare yourself to use your abilities with the greatest success. The boxer, depending on how the opponent can act, what his blows are the most dangerous, what technical measures he uses most in combat, should think about the system of defense activities. Knowing what types of defense the opponent uses most effectively, the boxer should avoid using blows that the opponent can easily paralyze. If, finally, the opponent used to fight for a certain distance, the boxer should impose a fight at a distance to which he was not used, and put him in the least favorable conditions.

The diagnosis should be especially careful in the first round. Fighting lightly and carefully, try to explore your opponent's combat capabilities, reaction speed and other properties as closely as possible. Through deceptively masked actions, you can get an idea of ​​the opponent's way of fighting, his favorite blows and types of defense, his ability to lead a half-distance fight. During the reconnaissance, be careful and avoid unexpected blows of the opponent. Diagnosis should be made imperceptibly, so that the opponent does not recognize the boxer's distinctive tactics and by misleading actions did not evoke from his side an incorrect idea of ​​his intentions and manner of conducting the fight.

Mastering, perceptiveness and correct judgment on the properties of the opponent help the broker to act decisively in the fight. The ability to conduct reconnaissance is obtained in training battles with various combat-related characteristics of the partners. Based on the diagnosis, the main task before the boxer is to plan the fight in tactical terms. But before the decisive action begins, the boxer should set a clear goal. Comparing your own advantages with the opponent's combat characteristics gives you the opportunity to sketch a specific plan, the path to victory and the use of this or that tactic.

It is important to recognize the opponent at the right time, there may be a helpful second person, who during the breaks gives the boxer his observations. Recognizing the weaknesses of the opponent, his weakly protected places, one should quickly find the right methods of attack, choosing for this purpose and misleading preparatory activities, and essential blows. The boxer should be ready at any moment to develop the attack with a series of blows. The fast pace of the fight requires that the decisions made in the fight should be carried out without hesitation.

In the fight against an opponent operating quickly and using the most unexpected counterattacks in a variety of ways, there is only one type of belaying - cover the chin without interruption. The most commonly used insurance method is the following: the palm of the right hand, ready to accept a possible opponent's blow, should be kept by the chin. When learning blows, defending the chin with the hand of a free hand is considered a valid condition. In the initial period of training it is necessary to observe that young boxers attacking are protected from unexpected opponents' countermeasures. It is important, however, to protect yourself against loss of balance in the case of misses, which use a lot of energy and put the boxer in a difficult positional situation against the opponent. Therefore, the boxer, even quickly and energetically carrying out his attacks, should skillfully calculate the strength of his blows to always keep his balance. Victory in combat is achieved primarily thanks to the activity and fast pace of battle; and yet misses interfere with the continuity of the boxer's actions. The most important condition for a properly planned fight in terms of tactics - is the ability to act unexpectedly. The fight, in which the lack of combat cunning, can not bring success, because the opponent, knowing the combat capabilities and means of the boxer, easily opposes their actions. The ability to keep your opponent in the unconscious as well as the ability to attack unexpectedly gives a great advantage in combat. If a boxer skilfully conceals his intentions, the opponent can not guess his individual actions, or understand the general plan of the fight, nor did he know anything about his combat situation correctly.

There are two methods of delivering a blow. First is a boxing-like movement, and the second is the traditional karate strike. While equal in force, the boxing-style strike has a greater range and is easier to execute. The boxing-style strike uses gravity and shift of weight to support the strike, while the traditional karate-style strike uses a sudden tightening of your body’s muscles to deliver a short blow. The longer range of the boxing blow facilitates greater acceleration to a higher speed and is more efficient in creating a knockout effect. The traditional karate-style strike is more suitable for breaking boards of wood, but the composition of wood fibers is quite different from the human body's protective tissues. The traditional straight karate strike takes longer to execute and requires slight preparation. Since even a split second is of the essence and the force used is more efficient with the boxing style, it has won popularity in the martial arts field. From the split second you decide to move your body and deliver the strike, all you need is to aim at the opponent’s chin. You then need to accelerate your arm to maximum speed, and maintain that speed as your fist lodges in your opponent’s face. The opponent’s skull will then shake the brain and nerves to a concussion. The ancient Olympics had fighting sports. Sparta is believed to have had boxing around 500 BC. Spartans used boxing to strengthen their fighters’ resilience. Boxing matches were not held since Spartans feared that it would lead to internal competitions, which could reduce the morale of the losers. Sparta did not want low morale on the battlefield. For many years the question of Bodhidharma’s existence has been a matter of controversy among historians. A legend prevails that the evolution of karate began around 5 BC when Bodhidharma arrived to the Shaolin temple in China from India, and taught Zen Buddhism. He introduced a set of exercises designed to strengthen the mind and body. This marked the roots of Shaolin-style temple boxing. This type of Chinese boxing, also called kung fu, concentrates on full-body energy blows and improving acrobatic level. Indian breathing techniques are incorporated, providing control of the muscles of the whole body while striking. This promotes self-resistance that helps achieve balance and force when striking and kicking. Krav Maga shows that it is not the most efficient approach. It is certainly forceful, but cannot be mastered quickly enough, and also does not promote a natural and fast reach to the opponent's pressure points, nor does it adhere to the principle of reaction time.

During these years between the wars, the Arizona was “neither the best nor the worst among the fleet’s battleships.” According to historian Paul Stillwell, “She generally fit in around the middle in gunnery practice, overall battle efficiency, sports, and the rest of the contests” but earned an occasional E for excellence painted on her smokestack. Her mission was twofold: to be a force in readiness should hostilities break out against some color-coded opponent and to train men for what by the end of the 1930s had become the increasingly inevitable prospect of another war.14